Cuomo pins blame for shortage of MTA funds on lawmakers

Cuomo said state lawmakers killed a plan when Michael Bloomberg was mayor to create a congestion-pricing system that would charge cars more to drive into busy parts of Manhattan. (Susan Watts/New York Daily News)

ALBANY — Gov. Cuomo on Tuesday looked to shift blame for the subway system crisis onto the state Legislature.

Cuomo, who continues to say the city hasn't paid its "legal obligation" to the MTA, sought to also blame the Legislature for choking the system of needed funding over the past several decades.

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He said state lawmakers killed a plan when Michael Bloomberg was mayor to create a congestion-pricing system that would charge cars more to drive into busy parts of Manhattan.

He also accused lawmakers of not pushing the city to pay its fair share while at the same time rejecting the idea of fare hikes.

"New Yorkers are smart people and these are difficult times, and it's time for some blunt truth and blunt realities," Cuomo said.

During his tenure, he said, the state committed more than $8 billion to the MTA's latest capital plan.

He also accused "some politicians in Albany" of preferring to do nothing when it comes to finding money for the MTA so that they can't be blamed.

"So the MTA gets no money and they've done this literally for 20 years and then they say, 'Oh my gosh. The trains are slow.' How can you be surprised? You did it."

Cuomo said he will include a congestion-pricing plan in his state budget proposal and called on the Legislature to enact it — or take the blame.

"The fingerpointing has to stop," Cuomo said. "If the Legislature does nothing, they're driving the train."

During his tenure, Cuomo said, the state committed more than $8 billion to the MTA’s latest capital plan. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

But lawmakers and transit advocates say it's the governor who controls the MTA. They accuse him of not doing enough to fix the subway crisis, something that could be an issue during his reelection campaign in 2018.

The state Senate Democrats, led by Deputy Minority Leader Michael Gianaris of Queens, sent a letter to Cuomo saying as much.

Cuomo mocked the letter.

"The MTA has to be funded, great, thank you," he said. "That was a great bolt of wisdom that we need to know. The question is, how?"

He said plans by Gianaris and Mayor de Blasio to fund the subway system by raising taxes on millionaires has been rejected by legislative leaders from both parties. He also dismissed as unrealistic the idea of seeking additional federal funding.

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Gianaris, picking up on Cuomo's talk of "blunt truth," sought to shift the blame back, noting that unlike the governor, the Legislature has no appointees to the MTA board.

He added that "I never realized Andrew Cuomo was so powerless over the state budget. To be blunt, many of us have been calling on the Legislature to do a lot more for a long time."

Gianaris said the lack of a plan to better fund the subway system is another example of the problems with having a Republican-controlled Senate that many progressive Democrats accuse Cuomo of emboldening.

Gianaris also argued it was the Cuomo-controlled MTA that recently diverted more than $1 billion earmarked for signal improvements and the purchase of new trains "to make subway stations more beautiful."

"This letter was simply saying, 'Let's roll up our sleeves and get the MTA the funding it needs.' I can't for the life of me imagine why that is objectionable to anyone who cares about the subway system," he said.

John Raskin, executive director of the Riders Alliance, also took issue with Cuomo shifting blame for the subway problems. He said both sides will have to be part of any solution.

Legislative Democrats, led by Senate Deputy Minority Leader Michael Gianaris, want a new long-term funding scheme to be included in the state budget set to be enacted in the spring. (Rose M. Abuin/New York Daily News)

"Gov. Cuomo wasn't the first to underinvest in public transit, but he has been in charge for seven years, and in that time the state has systematically deprived the MTA of much-needed funds, helping lead to today's subway crisis," Raskin said. "Not only does Gov. Cuomo run the MTA; he also dominates the state budget process that could create a new fair and sustainable revenue source to repair our broken transit system."

But Raskin said riders would support a "robust" congestion-pricing plan that can raise billions of needed dollars for public transit and said it would be incumbent upon legislators to pass it.

"Gov. Cuomo can be the leader who rescues New York's transit system from years of decline and builds the foundation for a just and prosperous future," he said. "The next step is for him to propose a plan that is ambitious enough to do the job, and to leverage his extraordinary political strength to get it passed."

Cuomo agreed the Legislature will be in a position to support a congestion-pricing plan.

"If they don't pass a law funding the MTA, then they are de facto voting for a fare increase because life is options," he said.

Even though Cuomo lambasted the Legislature as a whole for not taking action for decades, the governor's aides later called the Daily News to say he was taking aim specifically at Gianaris.